Politics

Chuck Todd Isn’t Happy He Ended Up In McConnell Ad

Alex Griswold Media Reporter
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The new host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” is getting a lot of free publicity on Kentucky airwaves. Following his critique that Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes “disqualified herself” by refusing to say whether or not she voted for President Barack Obama, incumbent Republican Senator Mitch McConnell made Chuck Todd’s comments the centerpiece of an attack ad. (RELATED: NBC’s Chuck Todd Now Featured In McConnell Campaign Ad Following ‘Disqualified’ Remark)

No fair, says Todd. He told the Huffington Post in an email that “campaigns that try to make others the issue are usually trying to avoid their own scrutiny.”

“I don’t take back my analysis. But no journalist likes to be used in a TV ad,” he continued. “It is cheap and likely useless. And McConnell has hidden himself from questions for months. This is a highly cynical campaign we are witnessing in Kentucky. Very uninspiring debate.”

Todd isn’t the first journalist to cry foul on being featured in a campaign ad, and not even the first NBC journalist for that matter. Tom Brokaw complained back in 2012 when Mitt Romney used clips of his news reports to attack rival Newt Gingrich. “I am extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad,” Brokaw said at the time. “I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign.”